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Puffy roasted sweet potato and rosemary flatbread

The night we had these for dinner, Malcolm asked if he could have another. (I think he’d already had two!) I said, without thinking, “No, I’ve got to save them for a photograph.” Then I realized how crazy I’d gotten. Instead of being glad that my 9-year-old son liked sweet potato flatbreads enough to ask for another. Instead of being thankful that he was eating a healthy food, with vitamins and whatnot (sweet potatoes have vitamins, right?), I was going to save them to take a picture. Ridiculous. Well, I quickly saw the error in my ways, and let him eat one more. (Yes, I did save one!)
Here’s how it all came about…we had some leftover stew, and for some reason I was semi-obsessed with the idea of making flatbreads to go with it. But I wanted to do something different. I wanted to use some unusual ingredient. I thought about all the different kinds of flour in the cupboard. But I’ve already made toasted barley flatbreads, and semolina flatbread. Then I thought about the sweet potato I’d bought on a whim. Why not put that in? And I’d just bought a huge bunch of fresh rosemary, so we’ll have some of that, too. And we’ll roast them together, rather than just boil and purée the potatoes, for more intense roasty flavor. So that’s what I did! The dough was a pleasure to work with – soft and firm at the same time, just as dough should be. I wanted them to be sort of light and puffy, so I made them the way I’d made pita bread one time, on a preheated baking sheet. They puffed beautifully! I was so happy! I love a bread that you can tear apart and use as a spoon, and stuff with delicious foods. I finally let Malcolm eat the remaining flatbread the next day, and it was good reheated as well.

In the early days of this blog, I foolishly used up all my sweet potato songs at once in a small playlist. It’s been a while, and they’re all good songs, so I’m just going to repost it here. Something to listen to while you wait for your dough to rise!
1 t yeast
1 t sugar
3 cups flour
1 t salt
2 t rosemary, chopped
1 medium sized sweet potato (about 1 cup, when puréed)
3 T olive oil
olive oil for roasting

Combine the yeast, sugar and 1/2 cup of warm water, and let sit for about 10 minutes.

Peel the sweet potato and cut it into chunks about an inch square. Coat lightly with olive oil, toss with the rosemary, and roast for about 20 minutes, till the sweet potato is soft and starting to brown and caramelize. Let it cool for a minute or two, and then puree it with the olive oil until it’s as smooth as you can get it. It might have flecks of charred skin, but that’s fine.

Put the flour in a bowl, combine with the salt. Make a well in the center, and pour in the yeast & water and scoop in the puréed sweet potato. Mix well with a spoon, and then turn out onto a lightly-floured surface to knead. If you need to add a bit of water or a bit of flour to make it manageable, go right ahead!! Knead for about 7 minutes till it’s very smooth and elastic. Put it in a lightly oiled bowl, cover with a damp cloth, and leave in a warm place to rise for about 1 1/2 hours.

Punch it down and leave it to rise a second time for about 45 minutes.

Form it into 8 balls. Roll each to be about 1/4 inch thick, and leave them to rise while you preheat the oven to 450. Put a baking sheet in the center of the oven to preheat as well. I put the rolled-out breads on another baking sheet and a bread board – I didn’t bother covering them with a damp cloth, because in the past that’s stuck to the breads and been heckish to disengage!

Once the oven and the baking sheet are hot, put the breads in, two or three at a time (as many as will fit on your sheet) They should puff up after 3 or 4 minutes. Turn them over and let each side get a bit brown, then take them out of the oven. If they don’t puff, don’t worry about it, they’ll still taste good. I usually have 2 that refuse to puff, and 6 that work fine, and we eat them all!!

Oh yes! I love old plates too, especially mis-matched!. I have a beautiful cake plate on a pedestal which I got in a flea market. Problem is that I can never find a way to transport the stuff I see when I’m travelling — airlines are so fussed with weight allowances these days.

The rosemary and apple is wonderful. Just infuse a few good thick sprigs of rosemary in your milk and cream until it smells really “rosemaryish” and then make the custard. Stew down the apples (the ones we have are a fairly tart variety) with sugar and just a little water, combine the two and there you are! As we were in France we served it with Calvados “gravy”! Whooo!

I love puffy flat bread. It reminds me with the one My Grandma always made. Thank you for sharing this recipe. Just can’t wait to try the puffy recipe then fill it with chicken curry 🙂How to Make Sweet Potato Fries

Thought you’d like to know (if you don’t already that is) that your puffy sweet potato flatbread post made it onto the UK Guardian Newspaper Life and Style section on Dan Lepard’s article about flatbreads. Here’s the comment:

Posted by steenbeck
5 May 2012 3:43PM
Those are beautiful and look delicious! I love making flatbread – focaccia, pizza, and then others that are more like naan or pita. My most recent attempt was a puffy pita-like bread with roasted sweet potato puree and rosemary worked into the dough.

I’m LizMacau — don’t comment all that often but I read practically every day and I particularly like Dan Lepard’s recipes. I have several of his books and his method of bread has changed my life!
I haven’t had a chance to try your flatbread yet but the recipe is printed out and on the kitchen counter.

I love the Guardian – I actually think they’re better for American news, too in some ways. I’m fairly new to WOM, but I’ve been a big fan of the music and film sections for years. I’m a Readers Recommender! I keep sending queries to WOM, hoping they’ll let me write a blog article for them, but they never reply. (Sniff, sob…)